"qu'ils mangent de la brioche"

Let them eat cake...the words spoken by a queen of France, commonly associated with the legendary Marie Antoinette, upon hearing that the peasants complained that there wasn't enough bread to go around. I recently discovered that the "cake" she was referring to was in fact brioche - "S’ils n’ont plus de pain, qu’ils mangent de la brioche" which is translated to "If they have no bread, let them eat cake".

I have always shied away from bread or anything yeast related until recently. Not because I don't like yeast products but because I've always thought that yeast was difficult to work with. I recent watched an episode of French Food At Home in which Laura Calder was making a brioche. It seemed easy enough so I decided to make mine.

I used a recipe from foodbeam because the recipe that Fanny used was one by Pierre Herme and by now most of my friends would know that I'm a Pierre Herme fan.

I enjoyed making the brioche but was rather impatient having to wait long to bake it - the dough has to rise twice.

It turned out great, a bit rich, which makes me wonder how it is that French women are able to maintain their weight so well.

Mmmm Cinnabon...

...Well not actually.

Hands up if you love Cinnabon. It was love of at first bite for me. I fell in love with the delicate bun, the sweet spicy cinnamon filling and the decadent cream cheese that enrobes every delicious cinnabon.

After having tasted every single variant I asked the sales lady at our local (the one and only) Cinnabon store if she could add chocolate sauce to the Caramel Pecanbon which I had just purchased. She politely replied, "sorry we don't do that".

Either way I was determined to have my cinnamon roll with chocolate sauce, caramel sauce and roasted pecans...just the way I normally like my desserts. The next day I searched for cinnamon roll recipes and found a cinnabon clone recipe. I gave it a try and was quite impressed with the results. I wouldn't call it a cinnabon but the roll had all the sweet cinnamon goodness that I love about Cinnabon cinnamon rolls.

For those of you who haven't been to cinnabon. You need to go, you won't be disappointed...and they keep their promises too. You will always find them fresh out of the oven.

Pure Cinnabon decadence...

Classic Cinnabon and Caramel Pecanbon

The recipe is easy and the results are great. If you're intimidated by working with yeasted doughs, don't be. I found the dough easy to work with and quite forgiving. I made a few mistakes with it (that's what happens when you trying to fit baking into a busy schedule) and it still turned out good.

Here goes....

First I poured added the warm milk and yeast into a large bowl and gave it a quick stir.

Next I added the sugar, margarine, salt and eggs and gave that a quick stir to combine.


I then added the flour one cup at a time and mixed with my hand mixer using the dough attachment until all the ingredients were well combined.

The dough turned out a bit too sticky so I added about half a cup flour to the dough. It was still slightly sticky and elastic but I didn't want to add anymore flour.


I left the dough in the oven, which I had warmed slightly, to rise until double. The dough was still too soft and a tad bit sticky for me to roll so I kneaded it gently on a well floured surface until it formed a soft dough.

I rolled the dough into a large rectangle - I didn't measure and spread the soft butter evenly over the dough leaving...... I left about 1 inch from the bottom edge (this should be the longer side of your rectangle) clean so that the rolls can seal nicely.

Next I sprinkled the sugar/cinnamon mixture evenly over the surface of the dough leaving a 1 inch space at the bottom edge of the dough clean.

Starting at the far edge of the dough, I began to roll it up tightly towards me. I then trimmed the left and right edges of the dough and cut it into 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) pieces.

I placed the rolls in a rectangular pan. I didn't use parchment/greaseproof paper. Instead I used my silicon baking mat.

I baked the rolls for about 17 minutes until golden brown and then spread a generous amount of cream cheese icing over the rolls while they were still warm. I also drizzled caramel and sprinkled them with roughly chopped roasted pecans.

Cinnabon Clone Recipe

• Don't be afraid to use margarine in this recipe. I made these twice, first using butter (I tend to snub margarine in recipes like this) and a second time using margarine. Both turned out great. Cinnabon actually uses margarine in their rolls.
  
• In South Africa our instant dry yeast comes in 10g packages. I used all of it in my rolls.
  
• Add a teaspoon of vanilla when adding the wet ingredient for the dough. It tastes better for me.
  
• For those of you who have ever been confused about "packed brown sugar", it's not a type of sugar. The "packed" refers to the way in which you measure the sugar - you need to pack it tightly into the cup when measuring. Use soft brown sugar.
  
• Line and grease the pans with parchment/greaseproof paper. Use an 8'' (20cm) square baking pan or 9"x13" (23cm x 33cm) rectangular baking pan. I try to steer clear from dark pans since they tend to burn or brown whatever's been baked in them too quickly. Leave a 1 inch space between each roll.
  
• Leave the rolls to stand for about 30 minutes in a warm place before baking. I warmed the oven slightly, turned it off and placed the rolls in there for about 30 to 40 minutes. I removed the rolls, pre-heated the oven and then put them back in to back.
  
• I baked the rolls at 350 degrees F / 180 degrees C until light golden brown. They took a little more than 15 minutes to bake. I actually didn't time then, I just gauged.

Ingredients:

Rolls:
1 (1/4 ounce / 7 g) package dry yeast
1 cup warm milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup margarine
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
4 cups flour

Filling:
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon
1/3 cup margarine, softened

Icing:
8 tablespoons margarine
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup cream cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

First step - Rolls:

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl.


2. Add sugar, margarine salt, eggs, and flour, mix well.


3. Knead the dough into a large ball, using your hands dusted lightly with flour.


4. Put in a bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.


5. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface, until it is approx 21 inches long by 16 inches wide.


6. It should be approx 1/4 thick.
   
7. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
   

Second step - Filling:

1. Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl.


2. Spread the softened margarine over the surface of the dough, then sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon evenly over the surface.


3. Working carefully, from the long edge, roll the dough down to the bottom edge.


4. Cut the dough into 1 3/4 inch slices, and place in a lightly greased baking pan.


5. Bake for 10 minutes or until light golden brown.
   

Third step Icing:
Make the icing while the rolls are baking.

1. Mix the margarine and cream cheese with an electric mixer until fluffy
   
2. Add vanilla and mix to combine.
   
3. Add the icing sugar and continue beating for about 5 minutes
   
4. Spread the rolls generously with icing whilst still warm from the oven.

Croissants - My First Attempt

I've been wanting to try croissants for a long time now but have always been afraid to try. I searched and found a recipe on La Cerise. I was even more excited try these when I noticed that it was a recipe by Pierre Herme. I decided to give it a try and they didn't quite turn out the way I expected I was happy with the outcome.


Mixing the dough was easier than I expected. My dough was a tad bit sticky. I wasn't sure whether to add more flour or not but decided to leave it.


The first problem I encountered was with the butter which was too cold to work with. The recipe called for cold butter so I was afraid that if I worked it too much it would become too warm and soft. The butter was difficult to spread and it was pulling the dough as I tried to get it to cover all two thirds of the dough. I wished then that I had worked the butter some more to make spreading it easy.

Because the butter was a bit chunky I had problems with it when rolling the dough. It kept falling out. I wanted to give up at this point but considered the costs of the butter that would be wasted.

I enjoyed rolling these up cause they made me feel like I'd accomplished something huge even though the dough didn't turn out as great as I expected. You can see how the chunks of butter were falling out of the dough.

My idea of a perfect croissant is light, flaky, crisp on the outside. Mines didn't turn out that way. They were crisp but not flaky and a bit dense on the inside.

I will not give up though. I wasn't too disappointed since I didn't think that they they turned out all that bad for a first try. I will try these again and include more details and pictures. I will have to wait a while though otherwise my hips won't forgive me.

Decadent Chocolate Eclairs...

...from the great man himself

I was excited to become a member of the Daring Bakers and couldn't wait to start my first challenge.

When I finally saw what the challenge was, I was a bit disappointed because I have made eclairs so many times before and was looking forward to trying something new. My disappointment quickly changed though when I saw that the recipe was one of Pierre Hermé's. I love everything that Pierre Hermé stands for and am looking forward to trying more of his recipes.

I thoroughly enjoyed making these. The choux pastry was easy to work with and turned out quite well. I found that I had to bake mines slightly longer.

The pastry cream....OMG...what can I say about it other than I absolutely loved it. It was the first time that I made chocolate pastry cream and have discovered something else to crave. The chocolate really came through in this recipe so you want to make sure that you use good quality chocolate. It was smooth, silky, chocolate decadence. I'm going to use this as a base for lots of other recipes.

I wasn't too crazy about the glaze since I found the chocolate sauce unnecessary(and a waste for me since I just threw away the leftovers because I didn't know what to do with it). While I think it tasted great I thought that the chocolate sauce weakened the glaze somewhat - maybe it was something that I did wrong. I find a simple chocolate ganache (without the addition of the sauce) perfect for eclairs. I made two batches of these and for the second batch I used the glaze recipe without the sauce.

Overall I enjoyed making these and found them absolutely delicious and quite indulgent. Thanks Tony and Meeta for a lovely challenge. I can't wait until I can get a copy of the book so that I can try other recipes by Pierre Hermé.

Looking forward to the next challenge.

Danish Braid

I remember eating Danish pastries growing up. I used to always the enjoy them - the light flaky pastry and the delicious custard fillings. I'ts been years since I've had a good Danish pastry so when I found myself looking at all the Danish braids on the blogs that I read from time to time I decided it was time to make my very one Danish braid. The thought of working with dough - especially laminated dough - has always scared me. I always thought that it was not something easy enough for the ordinary home baker to attempt. It wasn't until I found a post on Fanny's blog that I was inspired to make one. She says that her recipe for dough is easy and very forgiving so with that I printed the recipe and I was off to make my very first homemade Danish braid.

With all the pastry cream I had from the day before I decided to double the recipe and make two braids. One with chocolate (finding good chocolate chips here is like trying to get water from a rock and the only ones you can get in the shops are the "plastic" type) and one with strawberry jam. I have some good quality chocolate at home so I used half a slab and broke it into chunks.

If you want a good tasting dessert always use good quality chocolate like Lindt or Callebaut. I didn't use any of the two for this recipe because I had other good chocolate at home.

Can you guess what chocolate this is?

It's Beacon Superfine chocolate (50% I think). I wouldn't say it's as good as Lindt or Callebaut but it is pretty good. If you find this chocolate too expensive any other chocolate will do. Just make sure you use a dark or semi-sweet chocolate.

First I mixed together all the dry ingredients in a bowl. I made a well in the flour mixture then poured in the wet ingredients (I mixed all the wet ingredients together just enough to break the egg yolks) into the well.

I didn't have to add anymore flour because my dough was just right. Then into the fridge the dough went to rest for 30 minutes (are you counting).

After the dough had rested it was time for my first turn.

First I rolled the dough into a rectangle. I need to improve my rolling skills since it wasn't so easy getting the dough into a nice rectangular shape. Then I spread the butterblock - which I made while the dough was resting with a mixture of flour and butter - over the centre and right thirds of the rectangle.

Then I folded the left end of the dough over the centre so that it covers half the butter and then I completed the turn by folding the right side of the dough over the left side of the dough which I had just folded. I placed the dough back into the fridge to rest for another 30 minutes (still counting).

After the dough had rested I rolled it out into a rectangle and did the tour double (don't ask I just followed the recipe instructions) that the recipe asked for. I visually divided the dough in half and then folded the left side of the dough to meet the (visual) centre line. Next I folded the right side of the dough over to meet the centre line. I then folded the left side of the dough over to the right to create the "closed book".

Whew I was glad I effortlessly figured out how to do this. Thanks to Fanny for her wonderful instructions. The diagram she posted really simplified things.

Then back into the fridge the dough went to rest for yet another 30 minutes. After the dough had rested I rolled it out and did my final turn. This time I had to leave the dough in the fridge for about 1 to 2 hours.

Then it was time to make the braid. I enjoyed this part a lot since it was the part I was looking forward to the most. I must say that I wasn't as successful as I was hoping to be. I used too much filling so it made braiding the dough difficult since the filling was just oozing out. I also ended up with big although this didn't cause much of a problem during baking. The filling still stayed inside. Note to self: next time I will use less pastry cream/filling.

I forgot to take pictures of the chocolate and vanilla pastry cream braid. Overall I was happy with the end results. The only problem I had was braiding the dough and that's because I put in too much filling. The braid was utterly delicious. I was surprised at how good my dough turned out - light and flaky.

You can go the to the Foodbeam blog for the recipe

Not Quite Nigella

So when I was asked to make some pastries for today I thought no problem. With a full-time job there's not much time for baking during the week but with careful planning I thought that I could pull it off in no time. After all I've seen Nigella whip up some wonderful dishes in no time. So I planned and prepared but what do you know I still ended up sleeping at midnight and that was just preperations. I woke up early in the morning to finish off. Despite this I don't feel tired at all. I think it's because I enjoy doing this.

So here are the fruits of my labour. Top left: pecan slices. Top right: Chocolate tart. Bottom left: vanilla bean Napoleon or as the French would call it Mille Feuille.

The chocolate tarts are made with pâte sucrée, filled with creamy chocolate ganache and topped with chocolate whipped cream. Mmmm......I love chocolate and if I could I'd make everything with chocolate.

Now seen as how I have the day off tomorrow I will be in the kitchen again baking a special surprise.